


sticks and stones would definitely hurt more than words

by youngerdrgrey



Category: The Good Place (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-03
Updated: 2017-10-03
Packaged: 2019-01-08 18:17:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12259569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/youngerdrgrey/pseuds/youngerdrgrey
Summary: or,the time Eleanor comes to a different conclusion to much of the same results. // spoilers for the end of s1 at leastprompted:"Would it hurt you to tell me exactly where we're going?"





	sticks and stones would definitely hurt more than words

Chidi huffs. “Would it hurt you to tell me exactly where we’re going?”

“Yeah, pretty sure it would.” Eleanor yanks him after her again. This is what happens every time she slows down. He starts asking more questions, as if he doesn't ask enough already. Do all philosophy professors talk this much, or did she  just  find the most verbose one in the universe?

Verbose. Cool word. And she can never let him know that she used it, especially not  voluntarily  . She only has to keep this up for another few minutes. That should be long enough to drag this dork of a man to the one place that nobody else ever seems to go to. But, if she announces it, somebody will hear, and  suddenly  , they’ll want to join them for a stroll. People here are so clingy. Like her soulmate, this Nicole girl, who lays it on a bit thick and seems to have weird thing going on with Michael. Or Chidi’s soulmate, Aggie, who’s  honestly  the worst. Like worse than Eleanor could ever be.

“Eleanor!” Chidi huffs again. “Are you even listening?"

“Not  really !” She drags him around another corner and towards the giant river. There’s exactly one boat tied to the dock, and she might not know how to row, but neither does anyone else here.

“I asked, how could it hurt you to tell me?”

“Words have never hurt you, nerd?”

He rolls his eyes. “That hurt me.” Then he rolls his head on his neck. “Which, okay, that  clearly  proves your point. I—Eleanor, I need to get back before anything else happens to Aggie.”

“God, what kind of name is that anyway?” Eleanor drops Chidi’s wrist long enough to untie the boat from the dock. “Aggie? It sounds like something you hack up. Or somebody you’d go full Carrie on at prom.” Then she settles into the boat herself even as it rocks. “Not that I’d go to prom, but you know, it fits.”

Chidi shakes his head. “Eleanor, I can’t do this anymore. I can’t go on adventures with you. My soulmate _needs_ me.”

“Yeah, well, she’s not the only one. You ready for this?” Eleanor stands back up, full height, which isn't much since he's on the dock and she's in the boat. Has she always been this short? It’s not cool, but it does tap into her love for height differences. He’s actually kind of cute from this angle. Focus. “Aggie’s not the only one who doesn’t belong here. None of us do. This whole neighborhood’s one colossal fork up on Michael’s part.”

“I—wha—that—no.” Chidi takes a step back. Eleanor reaches for him, and he swats at her hand. “Architects don’t make mistakes, Eleanor.”

She stalks forward on the boat. “I heard you and Aggie talking. She said that she wasn’t supposed to be here, and I’m not either. I’m not the good person they think I am.”

He groans! He scream-groans. “Stop lying! I don’t know why you would do this. You insist on—on torturing me like this. So, what happened? You overheard Aggie confess to me, and you figured that it’d be fun to mess with me too?”

“Whoa, Cheedster.”

“That’s not my name!”

“Chidi! Sorry.”  She should  probably  get back out of the boat, but every time she moves, it drifts a little, and she can’t risk face-planting on the dock only to get swatted away again  . “I’m not playing around. The first night we were here, I called you a burnt cheeto — rude, I know, hate me later — and the next day, it rained burnt cheetos. I’m a plague on this town. And Michael’s a new architect.  I think  he forked up the formula, and I don’t want to correct him. I don’t want to go back to being a shirty person with no prospects.”

Chidi still looks mildly constipated in his anger, but at least he asks, “What do you want to be then?”

She shrugs. Her neck gets itchy whenever she tries to be sincere. It’s like she’s allergic to real emotions. But real emotions seem to be the main way to get through to him. It’s so gross. So much for a man of science, or whatever.

“I don’t know. I want to be better, I guess, and something tells me that you’re the only one who could get me to be that way.” She has to scratch her neck. And her arm. And behind her ears. “Look, could you get in the boat? Please?”

He mulls it over with a few hundred glances behind him and back to her. His internal monologue’s  probably  still calling her a liar, but if she were a liar, why would she do  all of  this? Why would she  intentionally  mess with him? She’s new to the neighborhood too. Plus, she's  been involved  in every malfunction in the good place since they got to town. The only thing she didn’t cause was whatever Aggie claimed to be responsible for. And out of everybody in the town, Aggie and Nicole included, Eleanor's one of the only people who feels real here. Kind of like how he’s one of the only people who feels real to her.

Ew, even that fake monologue makes her itchy.

She bounces in the boat. “Come on, dude, I already said the best part of my speech.” She bounces again.  Then, some current kicks in from  absolutely  nowhere, so her next bounce detaches her from the dock completely . “Whoa!” She stumbles back.

“Eleanor!”

Chidi jumps to grab her, and she snags his hands and yanks him the rest of the way onto the boat with her. Either she’s superwoman, or he’s heavier than she expected, because they fall right onto the bottom of the boat.

He is a little heavier. He is a compact, little nerd,  just  muscle and mind power and nothing else. Soft skin actually, he’s got that, and warm eyes when he isn’t glaring at her. His smile’s kind of crooked in a cute way that makes her want to cover his mouth with her mouth, and, holy fork, is she into him?

She’s not not into him, especially when he lifts himself up on his arm strength alone so he lifts his weight off of her. Their eyes lock, and their breathing seems to stop at the same time. She whispers his name like a forking Nicholas Sparks girl.

“Chidi?”

Then this guy — this dude who spent a solid twenty minutes debating which side of the two line pizza parlor to go to — swoops down and lays one on her  . Like it’s nothing! Like it’s  totally  reasonable for him to make one decision since he got here and use it to kiss her in the bottom of this boat.

He jumps back, of course. Reels away with the widest eyes she’s ever seen that kind of look like giant moons on his face. The jumping makes him less coordinated, so he falls on her again. Her back slams into the wood of the boat. His head crashes into hers. It’s a clusterfork, and all she can think of is kissing him again.

“Eleanor, I am so sorry.” He tries rolling off of her. Scrambling  really .

She lets him get up enough that they can both sit there. “I’m not. If anything, you proved my point. Michael messed up. And  maybe  ,  maybe  you’re not even supposed to be with Aggie.” She shouldn’t have said that part.

“You shouldn’t say that.”

“See! That’s exactly what I thought. Dude, we are so in sync!” She scrambles up, which puts her knees on the outside of his. She could be straddling this dude in a second if it wouldn’t give him an aneurism. “What if the mistake isn’t only that I’m here? What if you and me —“ is it weird that she takes his  incredibly  soft hands in hers? He stares at her like it’s weird, and at least a little bit like he’s gonna puke. “What if we're the ones who  are supposed  to be soulmates?”

He is definitely gonna puke. “Oh, no."

“That’s all you got?” No sweeping declaration on his side?

“Oh, God.” 

“Alright. Two word sentences. Can I buy a vowel?”

He blinks. “I—how would a vowel help?”

“It broke the cycle, didn’t it?” She smiles at him. “I’m not saying we have to figure everything out now. I  just  want you to know that Aggie’s not the only one who needs you here, Chidi.  I think  I need you too.” He gulps, which isn’t the weirdest part of that.  Eleanor confessed to wanting another person  actively  involved in her life, and she’s still smiling . “I’m not itchy! Take that, words!" 

Maybe  they don’t hurt, after all. At least, they don’t hurt her. Chidi, though, he still might vomit over the side of the boat. Eh, you win some, you lose some.

.

.


End file.
